A homopteran and a pteridophyte breakfast

My field assistant and me had no curry to take along with rice the other day cos’ we left really early (330 am!), so Army (that’s his name!) cut down a Pandanus plant and within each leaf were these stink bugs (Pentatomidae family, Order Homoptera) that he said we could eat, alive and whole! Hmm…at first I hesitated, then put in one, tasted exactly like Cinnamomum, quite good actually, so I had few, no, many more! There’s also another species of the same kind that they find in water below stones, he had brought that too, it was grounded with salt and chillies and he told me that some people are allergic to this bug. So I just tasted a bit, I preferred the cinnamon flavour instead. This is the pic of the bug, so if you find one, pop it in!

The previous field visit too, we had gone into the forest with only rice sprinkled with millets. So my field assistant then (Nyelik) quickly materialised a banana flower and an edible fern plant. This fern is probably called ‘Terimey soppu’ down South, had eaten it before, quite tasty. So after one hour of fire, we had this meal, really yummy!

Foods often a problem in field, so I tend to adjust to what’s available in the plate. Once, just once I ate a roasted collared treepie; although it’s a very common species, I admit I do regret it. Well, that’s that…By the way, saw this beautiful Oak leaf butterfly besides lots of other beauties. Will upload an exclusive butterfly post sometime…